Open Thread: What are you reading?

90
comments:

I found a book in my kindle archive I don't recall buying. It was about time travel and alternate universe. I half-expect an adventure any day now XD

Since I finished that, I read that I'm Starved For You and I'm in the middle of a steampunk novella called Flash Gold. Last week I finished Still Missing, started Sense and Sensibility, realized I can't read Jane Austen in bits and drabs in the bathroom or while work is slow, and decided to save it for the next road trip I'm on.

On the Kindle: I just started something called "Pulchritude"... Unfortunately, I'm only about three pages in, so I can't say anything more than, "I'm enjoying it so far."

Real Paper Books: I keep touching the front cover of The Serpent Sea and taking my hand away. See, it's written by Martha Wells (one of my absolute favorite authors) and it's the sequel to The Cloud Roads, so naturally I'm afraid to start it. Because the moment I do, I'll have to finish it, and I'm not sure I can spare any more time away from Raising My Boys and Getting A Full Night's Sleep.

I'm currently reading Anne of Green Gables, lol. Recently re-read The Hunger Games (just the first one, to get ready for the movie), and a couple Jodi Picoult novels, as well as part of The Silmarillion.

Working my way through Stephenson's Baroque Cycle right now. It's interesting, but I wish he let the major women of the period speak the way he lets the men (he acknowledges them and says they are very smart, but as of book three none of his original characters have had a conversation with one.)

I am reading a gazillton review books, but when I can snatch some Me Time I am reading O'Malley's ROOK and enjoying it muchly. Premise: What if you suddenly became aware that you are a newborn consciousness reading a letter saying "Dear You: The body you are wearing used to be mine"? What if you reading this letter in a public park surrounded by dead bodies wearing latex gloves? What if you find out that you are one of the leaders of a super-secret paranormal defense organization and the somebody is trying to kill you and the apocalypse is coming and you haven't the faintest clue of what is going on and how to fix it? And what if the former inhabitant of this body had REALLY AWFUL taste in clothes?

Except that it really makes me twitchy because I am an inveterate "skipper" when I read -- I'll read the opening, skip to the end and see how it comes out, read the bits in the middle but not necessarily in order, re-read the bits I enjoy five or six times, skip bits that I don't -- and I can tell that this is one of those books that only works if you learn what's going along with the narrator, in the same order, at the same pace, and I don't have that kind of discipline, durnit!

The steampunk novel I just finished (hooray for lunch break) has a female engineer as the main character :) I bought the sequel for $1.50. The last steampunk book I read was called Steampowered, it was all lesbian short stories with a variety of multicultural backdrops. I found myself actually getting tired of all women all the time and wanting some male characters who weren't thugs or brutes XD

I decided to go back and cherry-pick the Vimes books out of my Discworld shelf, so I started Guards, Guards a couple of days ago. It's odd.... my vision of Vimes as a teetotaler is so cemented by the later books, it surprises me every time I read about him drinking in this one.

I've also started picking up the Fables comic compilations, but seeing as how they're kind of expensive (for my budget, at least) it's going to be a while before I get to the end of the whole thing.

A friend borrowed me 3 books of the Dragonriders of Pern series and Dune. She said the former was her favorite fantasy series. I read through the first two Pern books, and didn't like them unfortunately. The gender roles are only the start of the problem (dragon queens mate when they're in heat, and when they do the female rider of the queen and male rider of whichever male dragon mates with it are physically compelled to jump at each other too. Apparently in the first book, the various male tutors of the new queen's rider who's dragons are all competing to mate with the queen didn't bring that up to her at any point during her lessons. It's basically thanks to authorial mandate that the winning dragon's rider happens to be the guy she was having some sexual tension with before instead of the much older previous leader she couldn't stand.) There's also the fact that those two books really didn't have much of a story arc or three-act structure to them, climaxes just pop in whenever, plot points that the characters spend a lot of time on don't seem to matter in the end... it's all told in kind of a documentary style, just following the people as they do things. There's a decent bit of world building, but it's not enough to save it in my opinion.

So I'm skipping the third book. Dune's next. Though the start of that hasn't really drawn me in either. The last book that did draw me in was when a friend left a copy of Foundation by Asimov during the new year's party. That was an interestingly written novel, with a nicely written world. It's age is showing, what with 'nuclear power' (fission, not fusion) having the extreme all-purpose powers that modern day sci-fi shows can't have without resorting to zero-point energy generators, dark matter cells or some other technobabbly term with the word 'quantum' in it. And, yes, I'll admit, this 1950s book brings some 1950s gender roles to the table. The first book already spans multiple generations, yet the only two women even in the story are a maid who gets no lines and the wife of a villainous despot who uses her few lines to show she's equally villainous but nonetheless hates her husband for only being ruler of such a pitful planet before he silences her by giving her some fancy techno-jewelery. No really, the guy hands her some nuclear powered fancy jewelery and says "Here, now shut up. To be fair, he's a villain. To be unfair, it works.But because it is so blatant, and because the text was actually written in the fifties as opposed to someone desperately wanting to go back to the fifties, I have to admit I found it mostly funny to read instead of enraging. I had pretty much the same reaction to those scenes as I had to scenes describing two factions in an interstellar empire waging a space war on only oil & coal and being in awe of the Foundation for having a working nuclear fission reactor. That reaction can be summed up as "D-awwwww."

Oh snap! I'm rereading Anne of Green Gables too! Read it approximately fourteen billion times as a child, and yet I'm still finding myself with plenty of new thoughts on this reread. (A blog post on it seems inevitable...)

Been re-reading something... rather weird. The book in its initial state was a big international multi-authored project - the fairytale detective story for kids. The person who translated it in Russian confessed in his foreword that that it ended up more like retelling than a straight-up translation. I have no idea what the book originally was supposed to be all about, but the version I read is all about Edward Lear. (*Funcrfuvsgvat* Edward Lear. Fbeg bs.)* The book is called "The Mystery of the Orange Cat", and if anyone here read the original version, I'd like to be spoiled for it, if you don't mind. I'm almost sure there were no funcrfuvsgvat Edward Lear in original. (Or was he?)

Kindle app on my phone: The Phantom of the Opera- Gaston Leroux (this is a re-read)Kindle app on my computer: The Three Musketeers- Alexandre DumasPhysical books: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest- Stieg Larsson(almost finished) Game of Thrones- George R.R. Martin(getting ready to start) The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins

Not to mention I have a pile of about 15 books on my bookshelf I need to read so I can return them to my mum. And need to obtain a copy of The Girl Who Played with Fire- Stieg Larsson so that I can figure out what happened between the first book and the last. Just waiting for the library to get it in.

I slogged through more of Introduction to Genetic Analysis, which has some serious problems with pacing. It's also hard to keep track of which character is named what, as the authorial team has adopted a Russian-like habit of creating multiple nicknames, used in different places, and the original full names are nigh unpronouncable. The result is a somewhat bewildering soup that is only clarified by a set of reference pages that would make Tolkien proud.

I also finished Chicken Genetics, which was much stronger, but didn't tie together all the plot points in the way that I wanted. A lot was left to the imagination, which is fine in some works, but because it's a genre book, I expected a more definitive summation. Instead, it was just like "Wait - you're stopping at Neural Defects? WTF?" The adorable chromosome maps in the back sort of made up for it, though.

I have really high hopes for Mycellium Running, which I just picked up from the library.

I also started Elmer Gantry, which I have to read slowly because it's *so* prescient and spot-on that it's sort of triggering.

I just finished Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn. It's the first in a series about a werewolf running a radio talk show and all the trouble she gets in over it. I liked it, and I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series ... but now I'm wondering if there's a series about a female shapeshifter, or hell, even supernatural creatures in general, that doesn't have disturbing sexual issues. I mean, Vaughn handled the creepy sexual abuse well enough, better than Patricia Briggs handled the sexual assault in Iron Kissed (which is when I stopped reading the Mercy Thompson series), but just once I'd like to read about werewolves without sex becoming a part of the dominance/submission dynamics of the pack.

I'm reading Cherryh's _Regenesis_, which I'd been avoiding because I loved _Cyteen_ but hated _Downbelow Station_ and have not, in general, liked Cherryh's recent work. I'm reading it in dribs and drabs on buses, which is probably a bad idea for something so extremely political. There was one long scene where I had to keep going back to see who the viewpoint character was.

In between that I'm reading _The Art of Planning in Chess_ over and over, an extremely chatty chess book that's turned into a weird kind of comfort reading for me. It's like hanging out at a tournament, just out of earshot of the players, with a talkative grandmaster who wants you to appreciate what's going on. Since that's a part of my life that I'm currently missing a lot, I appreciate the book.

Before that I read or re-read all five of Hodgell's Kencyrath novels. The recent one is very well written, but the series looks to go on for a long time, and given the slow publication rate this is worrisome. Then again, the last two came out quickly. Maybe she has solved whatever problems were delaying the books and pushing them out to minor publishers who couldn't give them the distribution they deserve. I sure hope so.

I finished The Left Hand of Darkness, which did lend itself to being read, or at least re-read, in dribs and drabs as time and work permitted. I loved it, more than I remember loving it all those years ago. That trip over the Ice...wonderful and heartbreaking.

I'm currently partway through T>he Magician King, the sequel to Lev Grossman's The Magicians. More mixed feelings-- Quentin is as irritating as ever, Julia is interesting but possibly a trifle...overdone? Once again Grossman seems to be trying to have it both ways-- fantasy matters, but it doesn't matter-- but I'm not sure where he's going with it. We shall see.

Pulchritude is waiting patiently on my Kindle. But I'm one of what's probably a minority in finding ebooks a bit less convenient than hardcopy; there are too many places where I can't take the thing.

if anyone here read the original version, I'd like to be spoiled for it, if you don't mind. I'm almost sure there were no funcrfuvsgvat Edward Lear in original.

I think you are talking about the Czech stories by Zdenek Slaby and Ottfried Preussler, yes? I have not found an English translation, but I am tempted to track down the German version, because it sounds rather unique and interesting.

But no, I cannot find a detailed enough summary to say definitively, but it does not seem that Mr Lear -- "perpendicular, spicular, orbicular, quadrangular, circular" or otherwise -- is a principal character.

Oh, when I actually have the time to sit in a place where I'm allowed to have an eReader, and where I'm not afraid of damaging it, I think it's a wonderful invention. After the Grossman (and the Mardoll), there's a Trollope waiting for me on my Kindle that'd be a real pain to haul around in hardcopy.

@Jarred: what did you think of Delusion of Gender? I remember reading a few notices for it when it came out, but I never got around to locating a copy.

Yamikuronue, have you read Steam Powered II? I love it so much that now I must read the first one. I am dying for someone to discuss it with...

First I had the experience of finishing The Burning City, book two of the Spirit Binders series by Alaya Dawn Johnson, and being crushed by the news that book three DOES NOT EXIST. SRSLY? The first two were SO GOOD. WAAAAH!

Then I raced through The Kingdom of Gods to finish off N. K. Jemisin's Inheritance Trilogy. Fantastic! I wanna discuss that too...

I've been powering through a series of unfortunately forgettable romances from allromancebooks.com. Some of it's great, but some of it... creeeeeepy.

But I'm also reading assorted free fairytales. Going through the Andrew Lang translation of The Arabian Nights Entertainments just now, and I keep wanting to scream at the characters for being *silly*.

Ooh! I have that one; had the paper version when I was a kid. The only problem is that he heavily edited out the naughty bits, but he didn't do it WELL, so a lot of the stories are REALLY confusing. Or they just... end. With no resolution. Lang, why?? Why did you confuse me as a child?? :)

It's not free -- and there's FOUR of them -- but my FAVORITE Thousand and One Nights translation is the Madrus and Mathers edition:

I've read four or five translations in my life, and re-read pieces of them all in the last year when I was deciding which eBook version to get and keep and these are hands-down my favorite, no contest.

I'm wandering through the works of Simon R Green, who I just discovered a few weeks ago. Urban fantasy. Also wandering through the library's Marvel comics selection after reading the X-men-by-Joss-Whedon at a friend's house. After those, any non-Whedons are a bit of a letdown.

And I'm reading Paranormal Obsession about the country's love of ghost hunting shows, which is probably very interesting but I keep picking it up right at bedtime when I'm too tired to understand it! Y'know, even if you're dozing on your feet you have to have something to read while brushing your teeth, so you read even if your brain's not all there? Well, I do.

I just finished rerading Rook, which I enjoyed very much despite a few issues that made me twitch, because I am sort of actually reading that book Debt and it's gotten too boring for me, but I feel like I should finish it. Prior to this I read the sixth Simon Serrailler book which was very good and the seventh Naomi Novik which wasn't. I think I will read the new Nick Harkaway next.

Reading 'Return of the Crimson Guard' by Ian C. Esslemont. It is part of the same universe as Steven Erikson's Malazan series.

I'm conflicted.

Pros: Yay, more Malazan stories! Yay, finally some light being shed on major plot points that Erikson only hinted at because he & Esslemont created the universe togeher and divvied up which stories they wanted to publish. Yay, Esslemont is an interesting enough writer! Yay, some of my favourite characters return! Yay, the books are entertaining and I'm in sore need of some entertainment!

Cons: Boo, Erikson is one of my favourite writers, both in terms of word choice and characterisation, and Esslemont doesn't come close. Every other page I bump into a turn of phrase that's a second cousin, and I haven't found any of the poignant little glimpses into the human experience that Erikson does so well. Boo, they probably talk over the phone a lot because they spell the same words differently a lot of the times - not something that can be blamed on Esslemont because it's all made up anyway so nobody is RIGHT, but I wish they used the same editor or e-mailed each other the spelling as used in published material. Boo, a main character - a young man from a small unknown tribe who has found himself in the middle of things that go way beyond him - is called KYLE. Throws me off, just like Stephen Donaldson's villain 'Kevin.' Boo, all Esslemont's young viewpoint characters sound like modern teenagers - the islander girl who disbelieves the dangers that come with a certain night, even though she's never been off the island and all her fellow inhabitants know it's all true, Kyle and his surprising fake-jaded attitude, and the young noblewoman who constantly lectures everyone on how to be a good person and sounds like she needs to start ruling the world ASAP while she still knows better than everyone. Erikson makes his young characters sound like young PEOPLE, not like young 21st century European/US people. Boo, Erikson writes women who do all sorts of jobs, and just lets them do it. Esslemont throws in 'she did this even though she was a girl and everybody opposed her' too often. Why would his viewpoint characters be the only people who get opposed as girls, whereas the rest of the women are not hampered by sex and the rest of the men don't seem to care? Boo, Erikson is obscure but Esslemont just throws in all sorts of references that only make sense if you've read Erikson's books. Maybe he counted on that, and maybe not, but it gives the whole a slight fanfictionish tang.

Still, I'm enjoying them and I'll definitely read all three Esslemont books I got for my birthday and probably buy the fourth as well. Because yay, Malazan stories! And it must be tough, getting a late start on making your mark on a universe that's a shared creation, and most of my nitpicks are only nitpicks because Erikson got there first.

Have you read Morrison's New X-Men? He's the writer that immediately preceded Whedon, and I tend to feel the same way about his run that you feel about Whedon's. It's definitively an acquired taste, though.

As for what I'm currently reading: 1Q84, by Haruki Murakami--the first time I've read anything of his translated to Spanish. It's definitively Murakami--there's a platonic relationship between an adult male and a teenage girl which doesn't avoid feeling somewhat creepy, lots of unconventional similes, and a hint of the supernatural at the peripheries. It's not my favorite of his, but it's far from his worst.

Also, El Sol de Breda, by Arturo Pérez Reverte, the third book in the Capitán Alatriste historical fiction series, which, unlike the first two, is set not in Spain but in the front lines of Spain's war with Flanders. Given that the previous two books placed a heavy emphasis on political infighting, I feared that new setting for this one would make it harder for the series to play to its strengths, and so far, that appears to be the case. So far, it feels a bit like Pratchett / Discworld's Monstrous Regiment without the funny parts.

I picked it because it was the free version for kobo (next is probably the free Japanese fairy tales, as I seem to be doing a sequence of them), and it's just... I keep stopping and going, wait, what? Some of it's did-I-miss-the-end-of-that-one feeling, some of it's more: She's spent her days sitting in a box getting spit on for 28 years? And there are no consequences for that? Nobody thought to, say, build a new temple to go to, if it bothers them so much to do it? The king never remarried? Why does the bird *not* want to turn the brothers back into humans?

And, from earlier in the book, Why Is Kidnapping An Acceptable Courtship Strategy? Are all the good guys just naturally pleasant-looking young men, regardless of whether they've previously been shiftless and lazy? Is there anything resembling Logical Rewards For Good Behaviour in this universe? And, more importantly, why were those women whipping dogs and demanding stories for the release of their captive guests?

On the other hand, I next picked up a romance I will probably finish, though it's already hit my A Guy Just Tried To Molest You And You Blame The Stripper In The Room and What D'you Mean You're Perfectly Safe Because He's Friends With A Gay Couple buttons. And I haven't figured out how the masquerade works in this one -- the vampire only dates and socialises with other vampires, and he owns a major corporation that employs mostly vampires; it's heavily implied vampires are a huge part of society. Yet there's been no mention of them from the human pov characters. Not sure if if this is imminent fail or just a slow reveal of worldbuilding.

It also brings to mind, how come women in fiction get to wear black bras under white shirts and never have it show until they get wet? Are they buying seriously heavier white cloth than exists in my world? Because I've worked where white dress shirts are part of the dress code; even wearing a white bra underneath, it's kinda visible, so your best bet is to get as close to your skin colour as you can. Black is glaringly inappropriate. And yet this seems to be the accepted trope across tv, books, and movies, for Proper During The Day But Secretly Wanton And Sexual.

Heh, yep. Lang's translations and compilations are nice (I have all his Color Fairy Books), but his Arabian Nights is a hot mess of confusing. The dogs being whipped were once jealous sisters who tried to kill the woman who whips them. The woman survived and ended up saving a female Jinniyah from being raped by a male Jinni, so the Jinniyah took it upon herself to turn the murderous sisters into dogs and charge the woman that if she does not whip them daily she will become a dog as well.

@Amaryllis: I'm only about a third of the way through Delusions of Gender and so far, I love it. I've long (if not always) been of the opinion that most "gender differences" are a matter of societal learning, even on an unconscious level. Not only is this book providing me with mounds of scientific evidence reaffirming that, it's showing the multitude of ways that it happens through such psychological mechanisms as associative learning and stereotype threat.

It's also raised some interesting points in my mind. For example, after reading the first chapter and learning about associative learning and how it effects our perceptions of gender, our perceptions of ourselves, and our behavior, it opened my eyes to yet another layer reasons why things like Photoshopping Hillary Clinton out of a historic meeting are problematic and troubling.

After watching the movie "John Carter", I'm re-reading ERB's Mars novels again. Project Gutenberg has the first five available, so I just downloaded them to my eReader. Going to have to bug my husband to dig out his old SFBC volumes for the rest of the series, though. I finished "A Princess of Mars" and am partway through "Gods of Mars".

I really have to hand it to Burroughs, he had one hell of an imagination--remember, he wrote the first Mars book in 1912! Also, considering the period when he was writing, he has fairly strong female supporting characters.

I uѕually do not write a comment, but I looκеd at through a few remаrks here "Open Thread: What are you reading?".I actually do haѵe а сouρlе of questiοns for you if it's okay. Could it be just me or does it seem like some of these remarks look like they are written by brain dead folks? :-P And, if you are posting at additional places, I would like to keep up with anything new you have to post. Could you make a list of all of all your social networking sites like your Facebook page, twitter feed, or linkedin profile?

Howdy just wanteԁ tο giνe you а quick heads up.The text in уouг post seеm to be runnіng off the ѕcreen in Ie. I'm not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with browser compatibility but I figured I'd post to let you knοw. Thе desіgn аnd style loоk gгeat though!

I'm really enjoying the design and layout of your blog. It'ѕ a veгy еаsy on the еyes whiсh makеs it much more рlеasant foг me tο come here and ѵіsit more often. Diԁ you hiгe out a devеloper to create your themе? Outstanԁіng work!

An іmpressive ѕharе! I've just forwarded this onto a co-worker who had been conducting a little homework on this. And he in fact bought me dinner due to the fact that I discovered it for him... lol. So let me reword this.... Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending some time to talk about this matter here on your website.

naturally like yοur website however you need to taκe a lоoκ at the spelling on several of your posts. Several of them are rifе wіth spelling problems and I to find it veгy tгoublesome to tell the reality on thе otheг hanԁ І'll certainly come back again.

Υou're so awesome! I do not believe I'vе truly read а single thing like this befοre.So great to ԁіѕcovеr ѕοmebody with ѕome genuine thoughts on this ѕubјect mattеr.Sеrіously.. thankѕ for stаrting this up.

Thіs ωеbsite is ѕomething that's needed on the internet, someone with a little originality!

Wow that was strange. I just ωrote an еxtrеmely long сommеnt but aftеr I clіckеd submit mу comment didn't appear. Grrrr... well I'm not writing all that οѵеr аgaіn. Αnyhοw, just wаnted to say excellent blog!

Hello just wanteԁ to give уοu a quiсk hеads up.The text in yοur poѕt ѕeem to bе гunning off thе screen in Chrome. I'm not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with browser compatibility but I thought I'd post to let уou know. The lаyοut looκ grеаt though!Hope уou gеt the problem solved soon.Cheers

Whаt i don't realize is if truth be told how you're now not actuallу а lοt mοrе smaгtly-аppгeciated than you may be now.

You're so intelligent. You realize therefore considerably in the case of this subject, made me personally consider it from a lot of various angles. Its like men and women don't seеm to be іnvolveԁ untіl it іs one thing to do ωith Gігl gaga! Υour indivіԁual ѕtuffs niсe.At all times deal with іt up!

You aгe so awеsome! I don't think I've truly гead anуthing liκe that before.So gгeat to dіѕcoνer someone with genuine thoughts on this issue.Really.. thanks for stаrting this up. This ωebsite iѕ onе thіng that is needed on the web,someοne with a bit of originality!

We absolutely love уour blοg anԁ find mаny of уour ρost's to be precisely what I'm looκing for.Woulԁ yоu offег gueѕt ωгiters to writе cоntеnt in yоur cаse? I wouldn't mind writing a post or elaborating on a few of the subjects you write concerning here. Again, awesome website!

Thiѕ is reаllу аttention-gгabbіng, You arе a vеry skilled bloggeг.I've joined your feed and sit up for in search of extra of your magnificent post. Also, I have shared your website in my social networks

Ηi, Νeat post. Therе is a ρrοblem with your ωеbѕite in web explorer, could chеck this?ӀЕ still іs the marκet leader аnԁ а big сomponent to othеr people wіll omit your great wгіting becаusе of this problem.

My partner and I stumbled over here coming from a dіffeгent ωebsitе аnd thought I might check thingѕ οut.Ӏ liκe what I see so i am just folloωing you.Looκ forwaгd to looking into уοur web page fоr a sеcond timе.

Eхсеllent beat ! I wοuld like to аpprenticе even аs you аmеnԁ уour website, how can i ѕubscribe for a weblog ωebsite?The account helped me a aρpropriate ԁeal. Ӏ had been tіny bit acquainted of this your broadcаѕt proviԁed shiny transparent concept

Post a Comment

Welcome to Ramblings!

Welcome to Ramblings, a progressive feminist blog about books, movies, pop culture, and their intersection with social justice. Please note that the comment policy is required reading before commenting.